SHELDON WHITEHOUSE

President Joe Biden announced on Wednesday that millions of people will have their federal student loan debt forgiven, some by as much as $20,000. While Biden’s program will forgive student loan debt for some, it is not for everyone. Only federal student loan debt is eligible. If you still have student loan debt after the $10,000 or $20,000 debt forgiveness, you will receive a notice sometime in early December about the status of that debt. Payments on federal loan debt that have been canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic will begin again on Jan. 1, 2023.

And they still work alongside other Democrats who have long prioritized climate, including Sen. Edward J. Markey (Mass. ), 75, who chairs the Environment and Public Works Committee, and played a role in crafting the Democrats’ $370 billion climate bill. Schatz’s arrival gave Whitehouse, elected to the Senate in 2006 and its most vocal climate activist, a more soft-spoken partner. They organized an overnight talk-a-thon on the Senate floor about climate in 2014 and introduced a bill to tax carbon emissions. Schatz, Whitehouse and Heinrich all say that the president signing the Inflation Reduction Act into law is just the beginning of their work.

“It's been a long time coming, but the Senate has finally advanced transformative climate legislation,” former Vice President Al Gore, who kickstarted the climate movement with his 2006 documentary “An Inconvenient Truth,” tweeted. For the last 12 years, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., has given a weekly address on climate change when the Senate is in session. Markey has remained a leading legislator on climate change since he moved into the upper chamber. McKibben wrote “The End of Nature,” one of the first popular books about climate change, published in 1989, and he co-founded the climate change advocacy group 350.org in 2007. It will create meaningful jobs, bring manufacturing back to the USA, & begin to address climate change significantly," he tweeted.

President Joe Biden is promising “strong executive action” to combat climate change, despite setbacks that have restricted his ability to regulate carbon emissions and boost clean energy such as wind and solar power.

President Joe Biden’s hope for saving the Earth from the devastating effects of climate change may not be dead.

The Supreme Court’s new climate change ruling is likely to hinder the Biden administration’s plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by the end of the decade and make the electric grid carbon-free by 2035.

The Biden administration says it has a plan to curb fatal overdoses by 13% by 2025. But as more synthetic opioids reach the U.S., there's skepticism interdiction can slow the flow of deadly drugs.

A Senate hearing on Wednesday, May 4, 2022 is likely to produce fireworks as Republicans and Democrats square off over the role that foundations and nonprofits are playing in elections. Whitehouse wants to raise concerns about “dark money” flowing through 501(c)(4) nonprofits, but Republicans plan to widen the scope of the hearing to highlight what they see as illegal political activities by 501(c)(3) charities and foundations. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib, file) (Mariam Zuhaib)A Senate hearing on Wednesday is likely to produce fireworks as Republicans and Democrats square off over the role that foundations and nonprofits are playing in elections. It appears likely that subcommittee chairman Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse wants to raise concerns about “dark money” flowing through 501(c)(4) nonprofits, but Republicans plan to widen the scope of the hearing to highlight what they see as illegal political activities by 501(c)(3) charities and foundations. Whitehouse has also expressed concerns about the use of “dark money” to groom and promote conservative candidates for federal judgeships, including the Supreme Court.

A Senate hearing on Wednesday is likely to produce fireworks as Republicans and Democrats square off over the role that foundations and nonprofits are playing in elections.

As the Russia-Ukraine conflict has pushed gas prices higher, some politicians want to give Americans direct payments to help weather the storm.

The historic Senate hearings for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, who's the first Black woman nominated for the Supreme Court, have been joyful, combative and clarifying.

Supreme Court Nomination What to Watch For FILE - Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson waits to meet with Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., on Capitol Hill, March 8, 2022, in Washington. What to watch as Jackson’s hearings start Monday:FOUR DAYS OF HEARINGSSimilar to past practice, the committee will examine Jackson’s record over four days. After the hearings conclude, the committee will vote on sending her nomination to the full Senate. Biden pledged during his 2020 campaign that he would nominate a Black woman to the court if he had the chance. It’s unlikely that any other Republicans will vote for Jackson, though most say they are waiting until after the hearings to decide.

Both Democratic and Republican lawmakers called Thursday for restoring the charitable deduction for donors who don’t itemize their taxes, a priority for nonprofits nationwide, but a key senator was noncommittal on the question of whether to support legislation designed to boost payout from foundations and donor-advised funds.

Clock-switching would come to an end in 2023 under the measure that still must pass the House and get Biden’s signature before it can become law.

Co-sponsor Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse cites health, safety and economic benefits to making daylight saving time permanent.

Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson is winning praise from a key Senate Republican.

Republicans want to blame the rise in crime on liberal permissiveness, which includes, in their view, the right to counsel.

Republican Sen. Ron Johnson's opposition to President Joe Biden's judicial nominee in Wisconsin has surprised Democrats and is providing the latest test to the Senate tradition of letting home state senators block district court judges from advancing.

Democrats have conflicting views of what they're accomplishing in the 50-50 Senate and of how to take advantage of their control on the chamber.

"Democrats have been overlooking the Supreme Court for a long time and are now getting a wake-up call," Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse said.

Two Senate Democrats said Friday they oppose the reappointment of Jerome Powell as chair of the Federal Reserve, as President Joe Biden is expected to announce within days who he will pick for the nation’s most powerful economic position.

Scaling back his big government-overhaul plans, President Joe Biden has described a more-limited vision to Democratic lawmakers.

Former Trump White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham suggested Capitol riot investigators should examine private meetings devoid of documentation to fully understand a bid for the Justice Department to challenge President Joe Biden's 2020 election victory.

Former President Donald Trump may not be the person who was "pulling the strings" behind efforts to push Justice Department officials to challenge the results of the 2020 election, a Democratic Senate investigator admitted on Sunday.

As President Joe Biden visited one disaster site after another this summer he declared climate change “everybody’s crisis.”.

Several U.S. senators are questioning the Food and Drug Administration’s work with a consulting firm that helped businesses sell prescription painkillers during the nation’s overdose crisis.

Trump’s last attorney general told lawmakers he had to “persuade the president not to pursue a different path.”

Senate Democrats from across the party's political spectrum seem near the unanimity they’ll need for the crucial first step toward their $3.5 trillion infrastructure vision.

When Kavanaugh was a Supreme Court nominee, the FBI conducted just 10 interviews after receiving thousands of tips, the agency said.

The FBI reportedly received 4,500 tips in its investigation into Brett Kavanaugh. What happened to them 'remains unclear.'

Win McNamee/GettyThe FBI has revealed that it received 4,500 tips during its investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct by then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh but it only passed along some of them to White House lawyers, ignoring countless others.In a June 30 letter to Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Chris Coons (D-DE), an FBI assistant director, Jill Tyson, said that “all relevant tips” from a batch of 4,500 received during a 2018 investigation into former President Donald T

Whitehouse released a lengthy statement saying the exclusive beach club has "diversity in the membership and there are non-white club members."

A local news site says it only has White members. Capitol Hill reporters pressed Rhode Island Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse about the matter.

Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse fends off questions on family's membership in exclusive beach club

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., one of the most outspoken senators on the issue of systemic racism, was questioned by a local news reporter over the weekend about his family’s longtime membership in a private beach club described as "all white."

Defections are looming. The clock is ticking. But the majority leader is projecting confidence: "Unity brings us strength and success."

President Joe Biden’s hope of pouring billions of dollars into green infrastructure investments is running into the political obstacle of winning over Republican votes.

The senator claimed that climate talks have been dropped from infrastructure discussions since the president began negotiating with Republicans over the legislation

The Supreme Court appears likely to put a stop to California’s practice of collecting the names and addresses of top donors to charities.

The FBI investigation into sexual misconduct accusations against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh during his confirmation process may have been "fake" and compromised by politics, a senator alleges in a letter to the new attorney general, Merrick Garland. He said the FBI's Kavanaugh investigation from 2018 appeared to have been "politically-constrained and perhaps fake." Then-President Trump authorized an FBI investigation into the claim, but the investigation did not include interviews with Kavanaugh, Blasey Ford or several key witnesses to the alleged incidents, and the FBI's report was never released to the public. "This 'tip line' appears to have operated more like a garbage chute, with everything that came down the chute consigned without review to the figurative dumpster." Whitehouse asks Garland to "facilitate proper oversight by the Senate" of the Kavanaugh investigation, along with several other Justice Department incidents from before his tenure.

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse on Wednesday criticized the FBI for a lack of transparency with Congress, saying "it's not tolerable" to have an agency that isn't answering lawmakers' questions about its actions. His comments come a day after he slammed FBI Director Christopher Wray for failing to answer written questions from lawmakers in hearings involving FBI witnesses over the last four years. Whitehouse grilled Wray about the FBI's responsiveness during a Tuesday Senate hearing on the Capitol assault. Sen. Whitehouse accuses FBI Director Wray of giving politically sensitive info to GOP while withholding answers from Democrats for years "You've been asked questions for the record. Are they going to go into the same hole where questions for the record go to die at the FBI?"

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse accuses FBI of withholding information from Democrats FBI Director Christopher Wray committed to greater transparency following intense questioning from Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island during a Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday. Senator Whitehouse joins "Red and Blue" anchor Elaine Quijano with more on how Congress can hold the bureau accountable. He also discusses intelligence failures leading up to the Capitol riot, and weighs in on how the U.S. can shift toward renewable energy while taking care of workers.

The House Democrats charged that Trump incited the violent insurrection, which left five dead, and the former president appeared to side with the rioters on the call. A few hours later, the Senate voted to acquit Trump, 57-43, the majority falling short of the two-thirds needed for conviction. The momentary chaos, and the House Democrats’ eventual retreat on witnesses, was emblematic of the prosecutors’ challenge throughout the trial. But “we overwhelmingly proved our case.”Several senators agreed — three of the seven Senate Republicans who voted to convict Trump had voted not to call witnesses. “The House managers did a masterful job,” he said after the final vote.

Senate Democrats plan to focus on the Internal Revenue Service as part of a larger probe into tax-exempt groups that helped organize the pro-Trump rally that preceded the deadly Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. Several nonprofit groups were involved with planning and organizing the rally, including Women for America First, a 501(c)(4) organization chaired by a leading tea party advocate. "The most immediate [objective] is to look into the dark money groups involved with the ransacking of the Capitol," Whitehouse said. Part of the focus, he said, will be on the IRS itself and how it handles these groups. The IRS has the power to remove these groups' tax-exempt status if they overstep what the agency deems as promoting "social welfare."

Thousands had gathered that day as Congress voted to formally certify President Joe Biden’s victory over Trump in November. Hawley and Cruz led objections in the Senate to Biden’s victory, despite the widespread recognition that the effort would fail. In the end, the violence led to five deaths, injured dozens of police officers and caused extensive damage to the Capitol. And both senators used their objections for political fundraising,” the Democratic senators said in their letter. Cruz helped force a vote on Biden's victory in Arizona, while Hawley helped force one on Biden's victory in Pennsylvania.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., has called on the head of the IRS to review the tax-exempt status of Turning Point USA, a dark-money organization led by pro-Trump activist Charlie Kirk. In a letter Tuesday to IRS commissioner Charles Rettig, Whitehouse said the 501(c)(3) nonprofit student group should have its tax-exempt status reviewed because he believes it broke Covid-regulations when it reportedly hosted two large events in Florida. "In holding these 'superspreader' events, Turning Point USA knowingly exposed hundreds of young people and staff working at the events to serious risk of infection," he added. "Accordingly, I urge the IRS to review whether it should revoke Turning Point USA's tax-exempt status." A Turning Point representative didn't respond to a CNBC request for comment.

President Donald Trumps deep imprint on the federal courts is a rare point of agreement about the president across the political spectrum. The three Supreme Court picks could still be on the court at the 21st century’s midpoint, 30 years from now. In Trump’s first two years, they pushed through 30 appellate court judges and 53 district court nominees. “You know, when I got in, we had over 100 federal judges that weren’t appointed," he said. That nominee was Stephen Breyer, now a Supreme Court justice.

(AP Photo/Susan E. Bouchard, File)Rhode Island will now be officially known as ... Rhode Island. Officially, Rhode Island was incorporated as The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations when it declared statehood in 1790. Although the word “Plantations” in Rhode Island’s name does not specifically refer to a place where slaves labored, the measure’s backers insisted it still offends, especially since Rhode Island’s ties to the slave trade are undeniably deep. The formal vote for House speaker, however, won’t happen until January, when the new legislature convenes. Mattiello rose to House speaker in 2014 after then-Speaker Gordon Fox resigned amid a public corruption investigation.

The Senate Judiciary Committee set Oct. 22 for its vote to recommend Barrett’s nomination to the full Senate, with a final confirmation vote expected by month’s end. Relying on a slim Senate majority, Trump's Republicans are poised to lock a 6-3 conservative court majority for years to come. A former Notre Dame Law School professor, Barrett would be the only one of her Supreme Court colleagues not groomed in the Ivy League. But Barrett is the most open opponent of abortion nominated to the Supreme Court in decades. Others testifying Thursday included Laura Wolk, the first blind woman to be a law clerk for the Supreme Court, who told senators that Barrett’s encouragement and support were life-changing.

Yes, the Trump administration is asking the high court to throw out the Obama-era healthcare law, and if she is confirmed quickly Barrett could be on the Supreme Court when the court hears the case. Democrats also repeatedly brought up words Barrett wrote in 2017, when she was a law professor, criticizing Chief Justice John Roberts' 2012 opinion saving the Affordable Care Act. Barrett wrote that Roberts had "pushed the Affordable Care Act beyond its plausible meaning to save the statute." But the court could simply “sever” the mandate from the law and leave the rest of the law alone. One other key observer of the case suggested the Affordable Care Act would likely stand.

Yes, the Trump administration is asking the high court to throw out the Obama-era healthcare law, and if she is confirmed quickly Barrett could be on the Supreme Court when the court hears the case. Democrats also repeatedly brought up words Barrett wrote in 2017, when she was a law professor, criticizing Chief Justice John Roberts' 2012 opinion saving the Affordable Care Act. Barrett wrote that Roberts had "pushed the Affordable Care Act beyond its plausible meaning to save the statute." But the court could simply “sever” the mandate from the law and leave the rest of the law alone. One other key observer of the case suggested the Affordable Care Act would likely stand.

(AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, Pool)WASHINGTON – The Latest on the Senate confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett (all times local):5:50 p.m. The Senate Judiciary Committee has wrapped up the first of four days of planned Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Amy Coney Barrett. She warned it’s not just health care that is at risk if Amy Coney Barrett is confirmed. Sen. Michael Lee was present for the start of Senate Judiciary Committee hearings Monday for Barrett. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham opened the hearing by defending holding the hearing so close to the presidential election.

WASHINGTON WASHINGTON (AP) Two Republican-led Senate committees have launched election-year investigations into the Justice Departments Russia probe, resurrecting the issue at the urging of President Donald Trump while reigniting the partisan hostility that comes along with it. In a Senate office building next door, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee approved its own slate of three dozen subpoenas related to the Russia probe over strong Democratic objections. Speaking on the committees investigation, Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, told Johnson that I continue to be concerned that this is politically motivated even as he voted to move ahead. The president has continued to rail against the Russia probe, which he calls a hoax. Among the names on that list is Trumps Democratic opponent, Joe Biden, who was vice president when the Russia probe began.

The request for an investigation comes after a Reuters Special Report in December 2018 revealed that many power plants burning refined coal pumped out more smog, not less. Those pollutants rose sharply at some power plants after they began burning refined coal, the study said. (This) raises questions about the extent to which the use of refined coal is actually achieving the emissions reductions required to claim the refined coal production tax credit, the senators wrote in their letter to the GAO. Each ton of burned refined coal generates a tax credit of $7.17, or about $1.1 billion in tax credits for U.S. corporations in 2019. Bills to extend the tax credit 10 years beyond 2021 have not progressed beyond introduction of the legislation in Congress.

FILE PHOTO: Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) questions judicial nominees during a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., December 4, 2019. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/File PhotoBOSTON (Reuters) - Three U.S. Democratic senators have asked the investigative arm of Congress to evaluate a $1 billion-a-year subsidy for burning chemically treated refined coal, after research has shown that some power plants using the fuel produced surging amounts of mercury and smog instead of cutting pollution. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, as well as Senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Sherrod Brown of Ohio, on Friday requested the Government Accountability Office investigate the tax credit program for refined coal, according to a letter viewed by Reuters.

The request for an investigation comes after a Reuters Special Report in December 2018 revealed that many power plants burning refined coal pumped out more smog, not less. Those pollutants rose sharply at some power plants after they began burning refined coal, the study said. "(This) raises questions about the extent to which the use of refined coal is actually achieving the emissions reductions required to claim the refined coal production tax credit," the senators wrote in their letter to the GAO. Each ton of burned refined coal generates a tax credit of $7.17, or about $1.1 billion in tax credits for U.S. corporations in 2019. Bills to extend the tax credit 10 years beyond 2021 have not progressed beyond introduction of the legislation in Congress.